NEW YORK –

“Yo, work hard to get open. You’re not working to get open,” Isler told him.

Before Taylor could utter a single word of protest, Isler added: “We need you to get open.”

A 6-foot-6 junior guard, Taylor took Isler’s words to heart. He scored 11 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter, including a critical game-tying 3-pointer and two go-ahead foul shots, to lift Boys & Girls to a 55-50 victory over Cardozo before 3,658.

Read the full story here.

(photo courtesy Ravi Rozier)

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The 6-foot-1 Fontan leaves Friday for USC and will see the Tennessee-USC game Saturday.

He goes to Tennessee Tuesday and will visit Alabama sometime before the New Year. 

“I spoke with Coach [Anthony] Grant in Alabama,” said Jorge Fontan, Jio’s dad. “We’re probably going to visit them after Tennessee and after Christmas. They have a game on the 30th [against Tennessee State].”

Alabama point guard MikhailTorrance is a senior and Grant told Fontan he needs another floor general for next year. Jio becomes eligible in December 2010 after sitting out a year.

“He said he needs a skillful point guard that has a high IQ,” Jorge said. “Alabama has a bunch of athletes but he needs a point guard who can help that whole situation out and come in and be an impact player right away. The way the system is and the way Jio is, he would be a good fit for that situation,” Jorge said.

A Paterson, N.J. native, Fontan departed Fordham after deciding it was no longer the right fit. He was the team’s leading scorer (15.3 ppg) and leader in assists (132) as a freshman.

He has visited Miami and will hit USC, Tennessee and Alabama. Jorge said they are uncertain where they would take another visit.

“I don’t know who the fifth visit will be,” Jorge said.

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Trevor Releford,

“Yes. I liked the campus, the players and the coaches,” he said by phone.

Releford, the younger brother of Kansas guard Travis Releford, previously said he likes Alabama because of his relationship with new head coach Anthony Grant.

“Alabama is the top because they’ve been there the longest,” Releford said. “I talk to coach a lot and I was his first guy. He started recruiting me.”

ODOM ENJOYING ARIZONA VISIT

Rod Odom, the 6-8 wing from Concord (Mass.) Middlesex, is enjoying his visit to Arizona this weekend, his first official.

“We are still in the midst of the visit,” Rod Odom Sr. said by phone Saturday. “Everything is going fantastic. Rod loves Arizona, he loves the ‘Cats.”

After the Arizona visit, Odom will take an official to Harvard next weekend and then  Boston College Oct. 3.

Odom is also considering Vanderbilt, West Virginia and Georgia Tech but has yet to plan official visits to those schools. He has visited every school except Arizona unofficially.

COACHES VISITING IRVING

After we broke the news Friday that Indiana was out of the Kyrie Irving Sweepstakes, we have this update for Sunday.

Coaches from Kentucky, UConn and Duke are expected to visit Irving during a workout at St. Patrick on Sunday.

We’re hearing Orlando Antigua and Rod Strickland, Irving’s uncle and Godfather, will be there for the ‘Cats; Andre LaFleur from UConn; and I’m not sure who’s coming for Duke.

Funny story on this: I was driving home the other day and my phone rings from a restricted number. Guy on the other end tells me, “It’s Jay-Z, Sean Carter. Do you have a number for Kyrie Irving? I want to go watch him work out at St. Patrick.”

“Come on, bro. Who is this?” I asked.

He insisted it was Jay-Z and that he got my number from Irv Gotti.

I told him I’m not in the habit of giving out kid’s numbers and could I call him back? He said he was in London and he should call me later.

He never did and Jay-Z was on the Jay Leno show that night. In L.A.

FREE THROWS

Brandon Knight is on Kentucky’s campus this weekend, while Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson are at Texas…UConn did not come to visit Tobias Harris today. Harris said the coaches may come back Wednesday for what would be his last home visit. After that he and his family will cut the list to five…J.J. Moore, the 6-5 wing out of South (Conn.) Kent, is in the process of scheduling visits to Louisville and Florida.

Fordham hosted Myles Mack and Jamel Flash. Fordham assistant Jared Grasso has done a terrific job tapping into Paterson Catholic and St. Anthony, landing Lance Brown (PC), Jio Fontan (SA) and Alberto Estwick (SA).

If the Rams land Mack as well, it would be a quite a get.

Mack also recently visited St. John’s and enjoyed it.

He’s still planning some other visits to Virginia Tech, Rice and Providence.

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Coaches from Pittsburgh will visit Sept. 10, Providence comes Sept. 11 and Louisville and Marquette arrive on Sept. 12.

The 6-foot-5 Moore will be at South Kent (Conn.) during the visits, so the coaches will meet with his mother, Monique Ballard, New York Panthers coach Gary Charles and mentor Hunt Bresky.

RELEFORD SETS VISITS

Trevor Releford, a 5-11 point guard out of Bishop Miege in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, will visit Oklahoma the weekend of Sept. 12 and Alabama the weekend of Sept. 19, according to his AAU coach, L.J. Goolsby. Releford previously told me Alabama was his leader.

“Alabama is the top because they’ve been there the longest,” Releford told me recently. “I talk to coach a lot and I was his first guy. He started recruiting me.”

CALIPARI WANTS TO PUNCH A REPORTER IN THE MOUTH

John Calipari says he wants to punch a reporter “in the mouth,” and the guess here is that he’s referring to Pat Forde of ESPN.com.

Jason King of Yahoo! Sports interviewed Cal and asked him about the way he’s responded to the Memphis-loss-of-Final Four-situation.

One minute on Wednesday, Calipari said he didn’t pay attention to the barbs. The next, he discussed how painful the situation has been for his family. His angst was evident when asked about the way he’s been portrayed by the media.

“There’s [one] guy I don’t like,” Calipari said. “I know he’s a scoundrel. If I keep reading it, I’m going to punch him right in his mouth if I see him. So I’m better [off] not reading it.”

Calipari and Forde have a history, and so do Cal’s daughter and Forde. Both have called him out on Twitter, arguing that he has an axe to grind with Calipari.

FREE THROWS

Shaquille Thomas is still searching for a school. It appears he won’t attend either St. Benedict’s Prep or South Kent…Bryon Allen, a 6-3 combo guard who will spend this year at Oakdale (Conn.) St. Thomas Moore, will not attend West Virginia as planned, according to Scout.com. The scholarship saved for him will be used on Joe Mazzulla, who is redshirting. Allen said he will reopen his recruitment…Nice feature by Zach Braziller on former Seton Hall forward Mike Glover heading to Eastern Utah…Another nice FiveBoro feature on Russ Smith, who heads to South Kent and has interest from Stanford, Virginia, Louisville, St. John’s, Auburn, Houston, LaSalle and St. Bonaventure….Jerian Grant, a 6-4 shooting guard from DeMatha (Md.) Catholic, told the NBE Basketball Report he’ll visit five schools this fall.

“I’ve scheduled for Notre Dame on the 5th, UVA on the 12th, DePaul on the 19th and Providence on the 26th,” he told NBE.

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J.J. Moore

The 6-foot-5 senior wing from Long Island visited Providence last week and will hit Pittsburgh on Tuesday and potentially St. John’s on Thursday.

“I think J.J. was really impressed with the new coach [at Providence, Keno Davis] and what they’re trying to build over there and he’s also impressed with the financial investment that the school and community has invested into making the program top notch,” said Hunt Bresky, Moore’s advisor who is making the trips with him.

“He was really pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. He wasn’t as familiar with Providence as some of the other programs.”

They will travel to Pitt Tuesday and then potentially St. John’s before likely attending the Marquette Elite Camp later this month. (St. John’s is also expecting a visit from JayVaughn Pinkston this week.)

“We’re going to be scheduling a few more,” Bresky said. “We’re probably going to do something this week at St. John’s.”

Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel is also anxious to bring in Moore, who will play at South Kent (Conn.) for his senior year.

“Oklahoma has been reaching out to me and I haven’t been able to speak to them yet,” Bresky said. “They’re anxious to see if there’s a way J can come out there but I’m not sure if we can make that happen given the school year coming up.”

UConn, Syracuse, Louisville, Rutgers and Seton Hall are also interested.

Moore attended Rutgers elite camp earlier this summer and “he loved it,” New York Panthers coach Gary Charles said. “He said, ‘I love Rutgers.’”

But Charles added that virtually every school in the Big East is on him.

“[UConn coach Jim] Calhoun saw him and mouthed, “I love him,’” Charles said at the Reebok All-American Camp in Philly. “Marquette told me they love him. Everyone loves him.

MARQUETTE LANDS WING

Marquette added to its 2010 recruiting haul Sunday when it landed a verbal commitment from Jamail Jones, a 6-foot-6 1/2 -inch, 205-pound guard from Stone Mountain, Ga. who will play at Monteverde (Fla.) Academy this year.

Jones joins guard Aaron Bowen of Jacksonville, Fla., and junior-college forward Monterale Clark of Milwaukee.

Jones reportedly chose Marquette over Oklahoma, Xavier and Mississippi State.

“From the first time I was on campus, I started to like it,” Jones told the Journal Sentinel. “By the second time I went up there with my parents, I had pretty much locked in that I was going to commit.”

RELEFORD CUTS LIST

Trevor Releford, a 6-foot, 180-pound point guard from Shawnee Mission (KS) Bishop Miege, told Scout.com he will likely end up at Alabama or Oklahoma, although Arizona and Tennessee are still in the mix.

Releford, the younger brother of Kansas guard Travis Releford, said he likes Alabama the most because of his relationship with new head coach Anthony Grant.

“Alabama is the top because they’ve been there the longest,” Releford told me recently. “I talk to coach a lot and I was his first guy. He started recruiting me.”

Capel, the Oklahoma coach, has also worked hard to develop a relationship.

LJ Goolsby, Releford’s AAU coach, said it could come down to Alabama or Oklahoma.

“I think he likes the head coaches a lot. They’ve spent a lot of time recruiting him so far. It sounds like he’s cut it down to those two,” he said. “Arizona and Tennessee have a chance but those two sound like they are his leaders.”

Goolsby said Releford will tentatively visit Oklahoma the weekend of Sept. 11 and Alabama the following weekend.

“Right now I think they’re pretty much even,” Goolsby said. “I think he’s just wanting to get a little bit deeper into the situation and go from there.”

YACOUBOU HAS TOP 3

Achraf Yacoubou, a 6-4, 200-pound 2011 shooting guard out of Long Island Lutheran, has a slew of offers but three schools top his list.

“My top three is UConn, Villanova and Kentucky. They are showing me the most love equally,” he said Monday by phone.

He said he plans to visit Kentucky for its Midnight Madness and also plans to see UConn and Villanova again.

Yacoubou rattled off a long list that UConn, Villanova, Harvard, Xavier, Wake Forest, Kentucky, Maryland, Florida, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma and Rutgers.

I saw Yacoubou in February, when he dropped 23 points on Dominic Cheek and St. Anthony in an upset of the Friars in Bob Hurley’s gym.

In a game that also featured Tobias Harris, Devon Collier and Derrick Williams, Yacobou was the best player on the floor.

FREE THROWS

5-11 Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy Point guard Khalif Toombs signed with South Carolina, according to a source. Remember the name Rob Loe. The 6-11 big man from New Zealand, who will play for Dan Barto at IMG, is getting interest from Georgia Tech, Kentucky and Pitt after initial interest from Portland, Colorado, Washington State, St. Mary’s and Valpo.

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**Nimrod Tishman, a 6-6 point guard from Israel who averaged 18.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists at the Under-18 European Championships in France last month, has been admitted to Florida. Tishman must pass through the NCAA Clearinghouse and could enroll at Florida Aug. 24, according to a report on GatorSports.com. If he does, he could help out a team that lost Nick Calathes to Greece. New York’s Erving Walker is the lone point guard on Florida’s roster.

**North Carolina got a commitment from P.J. Hairston, a 6-5, 215-pound 2011 shooting guard from Greensboro (N.C.) Dudley High School. Rivals ranks him No. 23 in the Class.

**Austin Etherington (pictured), a 6-foot-6, 185-pound 2011 wing from Arcadia (Ind.) Hamilton Heights High School, committed to Indiana. He chose the Hoosiers over Xavier, Butler, Oklahoma State and New Mexico, according to Jerry Meyer of Rivals.

**Charles Hankeson, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound shooting guard from Miami (FL) Coral Reef, committed to Alabama, choosing the Tide over Auburn, Virginia, UCF, USF, Tulane, Rice and VCU, according to Bamaonline.com.

**Rion Brown, a 6-foot-5, 187-pound shooting guard from Hinesville (Ga.) Liberty County High School, committed to Miami, according to Jerry Meyer. Brown is ranked No. 44 in the Class of 2010.

**Joe Harris, a 6-5 shooting guard from Chelan (WA) Chelan, committed to Virginia, according to Rivals. Harris joins fellow three-star prospect Will Regan in Virginia’s 2009 recruiting class.

**Will Artino, a 6-11, 200-pound power forward from Waukee (IA) Waukee, opted for Creighton, per Meyer.

**Trenity Burdine, a 6-foot-6 swingman from Reading (Pa.) High, committed to Siena for the 2010-11 season, the Albany Times-Union reported.

Burdine told the paper he received interest from Rider, Iona and Central Florida.

“I just love Siena basketball,” Burdine told the paper. “Coach Fran [McCaffery] told me I was one of his main guys.”

**Tyler Harris, the younger brother of Tobias Harris, will reclassify to the Class of 2012 and enroll in prep school after graduation. Harris and his brother both started elementary school a year early, according to their father, Torrel.

“At this point in Tyler’s career,  I think he will benefit from regaining the year he missed in order to mature mentally and physically,” Torrel wrote in an email. “We have decided as a family that after graduation from high school at Half Hollow Hills High School West he will enroll as a post grad at an undecided prep school, re-classifying as a graduate of his actual class, 2012.”

Tyler holds offers from UConn, Duquesne, Tennessee, Hofstra, Delaware and Fordham, according to his father.

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Trevor Releford sat down Sunday night with his mother and uncle and cut his college list to nine schools.

Releford, the younger brother of Kansas shooting guard Travis Releford, said he’s considering Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee, USC, UCLA, Texas A&M, Minnesota and Missouri State.

He said all of those schools have offered except UCLA.

The 6-foot, 180-pound Releford said he likes Alabama the most because of his relationship with new head coach Anthony Grant.

“Alabama is the top because they’ve been there the longest,” Releford said. “I talk to coach a lot and I was his first guy. He started recruiting me.”

Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl has also been involved, especially since Josh Selby decommitted.

“They’re pretty involved,” Releford said. “I talk to them a lot. I talked to Coach Pearl [Sunday]. They really need a point guard now since Selby decommitted.

“They don’t have any point guards and stuff now. But I was still considering them when they had Josh Selby.”

L.J. Goolsby, Releford’s AAU coach with KC Pump N Run, says Releford will be a great addition wherever he goes.

“He’s going to be fantastic, as far as being a true point guard and leading the team and making everyone around him better,” he said. “He’s done that ever since he was young. That’s what the good ones are supposed to do.”

Releford said he plans to cut his list further and then take his five official visits.

“I haven’t decided which ones yet,” he said. “I think I’m gonna take all five.”

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